A.N.: one-shot. because every girl has had that moment of insecurity and doubt that made them punish their guys when they had no clue what they did.
A thick layer of opaque steam rose up steadily from the bathtub that Scott Summers and Emma Frost shared in their lavish bathroom, immaculate down to the double glass Mr. and Mrs. Smith sinks they washed up at daily every morning sharing coy looks while brushing their pearly whites.
Light splashes could be heard and murmurs fused with girlish giggles and a man's amused chuckles underneath the cloud 9 of steam spilling from the volcanic tub.
A fit-looking man was laying in the white bubbles of the large porcelain spa, his red goggles fogged up with a pearly sheen.
His pectorals were submerged in the soapy water, his perfect arms draped over the edge of the tub, covered in foamy lathers.
A disturbance in the white water gave way to a drippy, soap sud covered head that lifted up in front of him, emerging from the depths of the tub and between this man's legs underwater.
The head rose up his chest, dripping frothy warm water, revealing soaked dark hair spilling down the bare back of a petite girl whose skin was flushed from the heat, giving her cheeks a sweet rosy tinge, above which gray blue eyes stared intently into the face of the red-goggled man before her.
He straightened his back against the tub's rim and folded his upper body forward over her in a heated kiss, stirring the water and parting the clouds of white bubbles.
They lunged into the bath together, twisting so that their wet limbs were splashing sporadically out of the white waters and it was hard to discern which belonged to whom at times.
Finally, the man rose on top this time, smiling at the girl underneath him who made contented noises and caused the water to rock back and forth inside the porcelain.
After draining the tub and drying each other off adoringly, even going as far as dressing each other, the man led the girl out to the bedroom, and pushing her against the wall suddenly in a sharp swerve, he pinned her there and as if going down for a kiss, he leaned in, only to lower himself to the floor, propped on one knee.
Fumbling with his pocket, he managed to take a small velvet box out smoothly, and then looking up coyly at the girl who was bursting against the wall, muttering coquettishly, "OH Scott...!" he opened the box before her, revealing a sparkling engagement ring with a gigantic diamond on it, around a whole diamond engagement finger which glittered so that it illuminated the inside of the dark velvet box.
The finger was hooked forward, tipped towards the girl as if offering the ring itself upon her.
The girl sank to the floor between him and the wall, dressed in a dazzling simple evening gown that was an elegant shade of red and made the girl shine beautifully with her glossy brown hair twisted into a chignon.
The man, now changed into a stark white tuxedo, asked with a grinning confidence, "Ms. Katheryn Pryde...Will you please, please for the love of God marry me?"
His smile bedazzled his tan face, his hair gelled back like a polished copper penny and the box opened on his palm in front of him shone brilliantly.
The girl smiled disarmingly before taking him in her arms crying out in between a smashed smooch, "Of course Scott, oh Scott, take me. Oh wait, what about...Frosty?"
Her newly appointed fiancee smiled even wider and wiggled the box with the still diamond finger on it so that it waggled as if disapprovingly int its velvet cushion's.
"Not to worry my beautiful young love, she's been taken care of. It took me a while to figure out the geometry and nuclear structure of diamonds in a way so that my optic blasts could slice through, but as always, I prevailed. She understands and sends her regards."
Katheryn laughed hysterically, "My big brave strong mathematician! Let's make love on Cerebero so she'll have our psychic prints whenever she uses that thing."
Scott picked her up easily and announced, "We'll have to make it quick before the speech starts."
He dashed downstairs with her in his arms, down the spiraling staircases urgently, and passed the ballroom where a large party had gathered in fine evening wear- it appeared to be some charity event for the wealthy.
A woman like no other stood against a podium, dressed in a sleek black ball gown, she was a column of pure diamond, however her rock-hard face was contorted as if chiseled messily, so that she was sobbing gracelessly and her entire form seemed to be crumbling diamonds.
She clutched her hair and everybody in the distinguished audience noticed that in her left hand, the fourth finger was missing.
As she continued to sob in front of countless company, everyone watching her demise publicly, Scott and Katheryn were underneath them, finding premarital bliss on top of a highly advanced tool for telepathy.
"Kitty, ohhh Kitty!" Echoed incessantly in the dim psychic chamber, and Kitty's own soft cries grew louder and more critical until finally, with a lasting scream, a large psychic wave emitted from the tortured machine so that it caused the whole chamber to shake and glow pink. Hastily pulling Kitty's dress down with mannish hands, Scott reached down to pull his own tailored trousers up, when a slender hand with a diamond ring wrapped itself around the parts which Scott had been about to cover.
She cooed at him, "I can't believe you had this ring custom-made with the diamond of Emma's heart. This thing is huge! Yet for a heart so small... Even if she did have a diamond heart after all, this roughly cut thing is far from perfect."
The man chuckled but his chuckles turned into shorter breaths as the hand with the diamond ring on it did something naughty to make him squirm so.
Kitty lustily stated, "Now close your eyes Scott I'm about to take you i-."
"BLOODY HELL NO GET AWAY!"
Emma Frost awoke with a starting scream, popping up in an untimely fashion, a strap of her silk babydoll dress slipping off of her shoulder.
The sheets of her Western King sized bed were tangled around her flawless smooth legs, which still kicked from the aftermath of a dream.
Her light blonde hair was tangled wildly, and her face held an expression of pure terror, slightly covered in a sheen of damp sweat.
Catching her breath, and putting her raised hands down, inspecting to see that all of her fingers were still there, she held her chest to steady herself, then swirled around to glare reproachfully next to her at the sleeping form of the handsome man of her dreams.
His bare back was darkened in the glow of night's darkness and reflected moonlight beautifully, off the sculpted ridges and contours of his defined muscles, but this did not cause her to stare and admire as it usually did.
Instead, Emma swatted his back angrily with both her hands, and continued to beat him as hard as she could until the disgruntled sleeper awoke with a sudden start and sleepily turned to the distressed girl in his bed.
He lazily snaked his strong arm across her, closing around her body and snuggling close to her even as she furiously pummeled him, slapping his back and then resorting to using her pillow, letting out abrupt hisses of, "YOU CHEATING LYING BASTARD!," "DAMN YOU!", "TAKE MY FINGER WILL YOU?", and, "WITH THAT REPULSIVE TEENAGE GIRL!"
Slowly coming out of his sleeping stupor, the man held his hands up to defend himself from the barrage of attacks and finally took both her arms in his and bent them behind her, enveloping her in a full body hug. Inches away from her face, he curiously queried, "What's wrong, angel?"
Breaking away from his grasp, she swung her hands at his bare chest and seethed, "Don't call me angel."
He rubbed his head and let out a small breath of extersion and hugged the withdrawing girl from the side, settling his chin stubbornly on her bare shoulder and speaking softly against her neck just under her ear, he murmured, "What? What's got you this time? Please just tell me, what did I do? Did you have a nightmare?"
Despite his sedating qualities and the warm, seductive and pleasureful sensation of his soft lips moving up and down against her skin, Emma pushed away from him and pushed him with such force that he was tipped unbalanced, off of the bed.
She flopped back down into bed, laying on her side so that her back was to him, and pushing her pillow over her head, said, "Go! You are not sleeping in here tonight."
The man stood up indignantly, truly shocked, and stared hopelessly at the blonde who took some guilty satisfaction in knowing what he looked like, standing tall and slim, naked except for his tight brief shorts, his hair still somewhat gelled back over his head with loose strands, from the charity event he had escorted her to the night before, and looking utterly lost, confused, and distressed.
Trying one more time, he settled back into bed, attempting to massage her shoulders, but Emma jerked away from him quickly and grumbled, "I mean it Scott."
As if her skin had turned to coals, Scott's hands were instantly pulled back and he looked cautiously at her one more time before angrily shaking his head and leaving the room, making sure to bang the door shut.
Rubbing his eyes uncomfortably underneath ruby glass, Scott turned over on the couch in the Rec. room and shivered slightly underneath the thin flannel blanket he had brought down, very aware of the fact that he was not wearing any clothes.
The buttons of the leather couch pushed against his bare skin, forming indents in his muscle, he blearily blinked at the sight of dim sunshine coming in through the windows and the loud ticking noises of the clock on the wall.
Sighing exasperatedly, he kicked the edge of the couch.
He had no idea what he had done to disturb Emma so much that she had to wake him up at the middle of night to yell at him and beat him like a common housewife. As far as he knew, they had shared an excellent evening together, she had always confided in him that she dreaded the actual events she had to attend as an aristocratic and financial public figure, despite the gorgeous dresses, but lately since they had come closer, she had been inviting him to take her as his date, lavishing in the fact that they would dress very well together, and that she would have someone to enjoy these fancy evenings with, someone's thoughts during various tedious business exchanges and dull conversations that made her laugh so.
He did not mind, and guiltily thinking of Kitty who was often caught saying, "Mr. Summers doesn't seem to mind doing anything Ms. Frost makes him do. She could dress him as a puppy or in a leather bondage thong and he wouldn't mind. Suspicious, isn't it?"
Pulling the blanket up over his nose, Scott agreed that it was true that Emma had often put him in certain attire and situations that only she could have gotten away with just because it was for her desires and amusement.
Finally, Emma had someone to open up to and make fun of some of her associates with after these parties, and someone to her delight whom she could participate in more fun and energy-consuming entertainment afterwards.
Scott tapped his head tiredly, wondering what could have gone wrong in her mind.
As morning drew closer in its entirety, a shuffling of bare feet against carpet caught Scott's attention. He sat up a little and grouchily waved a good morning to Kitty Pryde who had just come downstairs, dressed in her baggy sweatshirt and pink sleeping shorts.
She yawned and waved her fingers at him, a sleeve-covered hand holding a mug of hot coffee. She sat down at the foot of the couch and he spoke, "Not sleep much?"
Kitty nodded drowsily, and gave him a look of spite as if he were the cause of that. Scott guiltily also remembered that Emma's bedroom was right next to Kitty's, which was really unfortunate in their already stifled coexistence.
Shaking herself awake a bit more, Kitty asked, "You? You look like Hell Scott, why are you sleeping down here? I thought you were-."
Scott twisted his lips bitterly and broke in, "I know, I know what you thought. Um, yeah, I just thought I'd give Emma some space to sleep comfortably in and um, we really need bigger beds in this facility."
Kitty snorted, "Right, like Emma's western king installation wasn't big enough for her oh so ginormous body! So, you got kicked out of your own bed? Didn't you...I dunno, buy that mattress for her?"
Scott bristled, "Hey, she needs a big bed! And it's important to stress maximum comfort when you sleep. I'm all about comfort."
Kitty eyed him with a deadly accuracy and shrugged, not having said anything about that.
She sipped at her coffee and kept her lips in the mug, to hide the moment she smiled a little when she noticed that Cyclops was wearing nothing but briefs and that there was a cooler draft downstairs when everyone was asleep and the heat was only turned on upstairs. It was funny to see the uptight leader caught in his underwear on the couch.
Taking her silence for annoyance, Scott sighed, "Look, I know whatever issues you have with Emma are present, but...do you think you could please just be a little nicer to her today...please? She seems really upset, just don't mention it to her, you know how she is."
Kitty snorted once again into her mug and rolled her eyes, "Scott, it's amazing with your history, but...you really have so much to learn about women, or about this particular succubus."
Scott furrowed his brows at the succubus comment, but Kitty continued, shifting her mug around in both her palms, "Like first of all, that's what she is, a succubus, not a woman."
Seeing his defensive side coming out, Kitty added, "And secondly, that she's very lucky to have you. As was Jean, but you were lucky to have Jean too."
Scott hunched his shoulders, bunching up the tension in his muscle, "I am very lucky to have Emma Kitty, I don't think you even understand. None of you know her the way I do, give her a chance!"
"Look, Scott I see that in the shallow male perspective, that you might be considered lucky to have a body like hers or whatever as yours, but clearly its affecting your skills and your head a bit. She's just messing with you! That's all she does she just messes with people and it's nice that you jump to defend her, but we can see her from a less blinded angle. You are all about chances, and she takes advantage of that, because you're good and she's frankly not. How can I give her a chance when she tried to kill us? Kill you, kill the team, and basically KIDNAP me? I can't really forget when she tried to abduct me and force me into her cult or whatever school she ran and put everyone's lives in danger. She tried to kill you! And hurt me! And everyone else!"
Laying a pensive hand to his chin, Scott sighed, "That's all in the past though and it shouldn't be so personal anymore. We've all done bad things, and hers are just as forgivable as what we've done wrong before, and well she was in a different place then, she didn't know anything beyond what Hellfire gave her, and she was under the influence of a lot of...powerful things. I'm not one to judge and neither should you. We take chances on everyone here, she's no different."
"-She is different when you treat her differently and give her special treatment." Kitty jumped, startled at the words escape her head as she was about to say it, but not from her mouth.
Emma glided out from behind the wall where the hallway met the rec. room, where she had been walking to find breakfast and bother Scott.
She coldly repeated what Kitty was thinking before she said it, out loud to finish her response and continued to glide straight past the two people from her dreams and smirked to herself as she walked in front of Scott at the stray thought and visual he had in his head of the way she walked in front of him, and her sleek baby doll dress barely covering those thighs he loved.
She was flattered, really, by some of his thoughts, expressions and words, his sincere compliments and observations, in a way that she hadn't been touched or flattered before by other mens' thoughts on her.
However, she maintained a frigid cover to mask the insecurity and rage that lingered with her and was especially revived at finding her banned lover with an impossible girl she despised, cozy and chummy downstairs together. Of all the coincidences, she knew...yet her feelings of the dream clouded her emotions.
Kitty's face flushed, rosy at the cheeks in what Emma liked to think was an unattractive tendency.
Emma's own cheeks were pink, and her hands as it poured a pot of coffee out, were trembling at the hot temper welled up inside of her.
How dare he even look to or talk to Kitty Pryde right after she had banished him from the warm privilege of her bed?
Sometimes, Emma almost forgot that Scott was not the telepathic one, because he always knew just what was on her mind, just the right way to talk to her, just the right way to touch her...
Just as she had hoped wistfully, he did not leave her alone this time, and she heard his bare feet padding on the kitchen tiles, and the solid warmth behind her as he gently put his hands on the backs of her elbows while she stirred her coffee. He pressed his firm lips to the back of her neck through her hair and patiently said "Okay, Emma, I get it. Just let it go, come on. I'm not going to give you the cold shoulder, I'm not going to ignore this tantrum until it goes away, but I'm also not going to stand for it. You win, you always win and I'll always admit that until you get it. You've won me over, so stop trying to find excuses and stop pushing me away, I'm not going anywhere."
She shivered despite her will to remain calm and imperceptible.
Her bare toes curled over the cold tile involuntarily as he laid his lips against her upper back.
It was almost enough to make her lose her cooling anger that now almost seemed unreasonable... Yet, she remembered the images of them, in her very own bathroom! In the very own bedroom they shared! He had proposed to of all people that unfortunate girl Kitty! And now she would have images of them violating cerebro...she would never be able to look at it the same. How dare he propose to this girl with her finger? She also remembered walking in on the poor man she almost came down for in guilty sympathy, sensing his discomfort and shivers, but then there was Kitty who, she hated to admit, made a baggy sweatshirt and shorts so vitally sexy, so cute and she was so annoyingly young and self-righteous!
How dare he? How dare she?
She would not be won over by his simple reassuring sounds and caresses.
But then his hands traveled down to her hips and massaged so effortlessly skillfully, it was enough to make her melt backwards into his front, pressing her taut back against the hard muscles of his torso, and those lips that continued to kiss at her neck and ear. Oh!
Emma mused as her anger turned lazy and she breathed in sharply to avoid relaxing her body and losing control.
So much control in those hands of his, in his body, his willpower and determination to erase this dream she had not even told him about yet.
She realized she had very little control in his hands and realized she liked feeling as helpless as her body had become under his light touches and irresistable grip.
With steely strength however, fueled by the rage that she had caught him talking to Kitty after that horrible dream, Emma firmly bucked back against his hips and straightened up, clearing her throat and busying herself with cleaning up a pile of powdered sugar she had spilled in her distracted state.
Feeling the pressure of his fingers relax and release from her hips and the cool draft that took over as he drew back from her back, Emma almost regretted her decision, but decided she had not seen him suffer quite enough yet for making her feel this way and for doing such hideous crimes of...infidelity? In her dreams.
That caused her to question why it felt like infidelity, and what to call it if situations like that did arise as it might as well have like in her dream, she had no official claim over him, and he over her as she stressed that constantly.
She liked freedom. Yet she was so free when she was with him, what was this horrible juxtaposition.
She had felt a hot breath of frustration on the back of her neck before he had backed away from her and rather enjoyed that feel.
Another set of lighter feet padded into the kitchen and Emma braced herself, determined not to look at anyone or give attention to anything except her own task at hand.
She could feel Scott's eyes bore into the back of her head one last time, but then Kitty spoke, "Scott, could you come here and help me with some computer hack code? I got past the glitch in the program, but I need a math nerd to figure out these stupid codes and numbers."
Emma's hand tightened around the burning cup she had just poured and mixed, and waited as Scott stared at her a second longer, then heard him sighing defeated, he turned to Kitty and tonelessly replied, "...Yeah, I'll help you, just take me to the computer you were working at."
As they both left, leaving Emma alone in the kitchen again, she tried hard not to let the devilish side of her mind take her to the passionate images of her dreams, and what else could be implied at the waking life.
She had another event planned tonight and Scott knew and expected to go, but she decided she would play it coolly as she was still dissatisfied, and let him suffer for a bit longer.
Sipping her coffee, she mentally scanned her wardrobe and decided which gown would be the most enticing, tantalizing and taunting thing to wear that night. Maybe she would put her hair up just the way he liked it and briefly bring up a new lingerie set she bought and how it was in his favorite team colors, despite her refusal to wear any lingerie that was not white.
Yes, maybe that would be enough to make him suffer tonight, but it was not enough to compare to how she felt upon dreaming of his...affairs with another team member.
Emma decided that maybe she should also stop making him watch numerous pornos with her for fun at night when everyone else was all tuckered out, because she didn't want to give him ideas, or herself any more ideas either.
A.N.: R&R!